Galvanized

[Professor Fenway]

Hallix looked at Reid and furrowed his brow, thinking. "Something happen?" he inquired.


Meanwhile, Vanidan was once again on the bridge. He entered in several commands on the console, conducting sensor sweeps and ensuring a clean path ahead. The latest ping returned a contact. Directly ahead. He raised an eyebrow. The second ping returned more data; patterned surface, moving at a slightly slower speed, intercept course. He moved to the control console and prepared for further conflict when communications pinged. He paused. It continued to beep at him. He pressed several keys and contacted Hallix. "Hallix," he said to the armory. "We have an urgent transmission."

"Who sent it?" Hallix asked, pushing out of his chair.

"Looks like a spacecraft. 15 klicks ahead of us."

"Answer." Vanidan picked up the headset connecting to the console, put it on, and connected the feed to the armory. He acknowledged the transmission. The channel fizzled for a second before connecting.

"This is the U.S.SS Jovian," the other line said. Clearly human tone. Clearly military. Vanidan looked at the feed. The ship was altering course, slightly. "Kamikaze,We lost contact with one of our drones in an area you were confirmed to be operating in. Do you have an explanation?" Vanidan paused.

"Play along with him," Hallix said, coming into the bridge behind him. Vanidan pressed a key.

"Jovian, we encountered the drone 3 hours ago. Drone incorrectly identified us as a hostile target and launched multiple armor piercing missiles at our ship. We were forced to take out the drone or risk complete destruction." A pause. Several others who were in the armory were coming into the bridge now.

"Acknowledged Kamikaze. Do you have the drone on board?"

"Drone is secured on-board."

"Kamikaze, we request the drone be returned to us. We will rendezvous with you in one hour. Please be prepared for docking procedures." The channel shut off. Vanidan took off the headset and looked at Hallix, who had a very confusing look on his face. Hallix shook his head.

"Lower hatch serves as a docking port," Hallix said. "Be prepared for anything but no aggressive movements. We'll go through with the cargo transfer."

[Error]

"Hallix, both fighters rearmed, and the dropship's prepped." Ash reported, pulling herself into the room.

"And I went over the fighters' systems, they seem okay; but I advise remote piloting only until we can give them a thorough examination."

[Luna]

Sasha sat in the left capacitor room, she had turned off all the lights and let herself slowly drift in the darkness. She drew long deep breaths, disconnecting herself from reality for a just a few minutes. Regardless of what was happening during the mission she had a duty to fulfill and she would uphold her promise to serve and protect the U.S. even though she was more in it for the people. After half an hour of her self hypnosis she found the lights and flicked them back on. She turned to exit but something stood in the doorway, the space in the doorway flickered as if it was a computer glitch. The glitch took a humanoid shape, it just stood there, staring. Sasha moved closer to it, curious. Then it jumped at her, it flew through the air grabbing for her neck. Sasha screamed and closed her eyes, but when she opened them a second later, she was still floating in the capacitor room. She quickly left the capacitor room and made her way towards the outer ring.
"Just hallucinations," she talked to herself. "I'm just stressed and it was a hallucination."

[cats]

Deciding that they were best left for later, Reid pushed the memories of his dream out of his mind and followed Halix to the bridge. He listened to the exchange from the corridor. A faint sound echoed through the chamber. Dread strobed through him, his head turned reflexively to Ash's figure gliding through the length of hallway. The moment of fear passed, but he was struck with a sudden urge to exit the ship. He calmed himself before speaking, "Halix, do I have permission to perform a walk? They could be hostile. Maybe a small team..."

[Julo]

Agatha waited patiently for the transmission to end and then for the end of the storm of ideas rushing at Hallix. One minute later everybody seemed to have calmed down as much as possible. She then turned to Hallix and suggested: "Hallix, I think, that we hand over the drone by ourself, so we can find out, who the hell just spoke with us. But first let me get something really quick." She didn't wait for the answer and just rushed back to her cabin and searched for it.
Half a minute later, she had found what she was searching for: A space command uniform, indicating that she was the second officer Agatha Smith. She had good connections to the navy back on earth and knew, that almost 2/3 of the second officers were called Smith. The uniform was not a forgery, however the name tag was. The uniform was a gift of her friend, who found this one in the storage and it was fitting nicely.
She put the uniform on and got back to the bridge. This took a bit longer, as the uniform was rather tight, which made walking and jumping around in 0g a bit more difficult. She arrived on the bridge and became an instant eyecatcher. She looked around and said in a military tone: "Second officer Agatha Smith reporting for duty! I am ready to transfer the damaged drone onto the USS Jovian, as soon as they are docked with us." Everybody looked at her, questioning if she was alright or not. She grinned and said: "The captain of the USS Jovian was wearing a space command uniform, so I took out mine. And before you ask, the name Smith is very common among officers. And because it looks like whatever is out there is at least pretending to be like we are, I can maybe hide the official purpose of our mission, or play along with them. Watcha say?"